POLICY OF B.M.A.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1941, Page 4

POLICY OF B.M.A.

UNDER NEW HEALTH SCHEME DOCTORS TO PRACTISE AS IN .PAST. FURNISHING REQUIRED DOCUMENTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A decision, that members should be advised to practise as in the past, to charge fees to the patient, and to furnish him with the prescribed “receipts, certificates, and other documents,” to enable him to claim any refund to which he is entitled from the Social Security Fund, has been made by the council of the New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association, according to a statement yesterday by the general secretary of the association, Dr. S. D. Rhind. He said the decision meant, that a patient would go to his normal doctor, who would charge him the ordinary fee, as hitherto. The implication was that the contract existed between the Government and the' patient, and not between the doctor and the Govern-* ment. Dr. Rhind said that on the doctor’s account being receipted the patient would reclaim from the Social Security Fund the statutory fee for the medical service. “The Minister of Health, Mr Nordmeyer, requested that the association should nominate four members for a committee which would deal with any difficulties of the Act,” said Dr. Rhind, “but the association informed the Minister that it regretted being unable to accept any position of responsibility in the administration of the Social Security Amendment Act, 1941, till the civil rights of the medical profession, which had been abolished by this Act', are restored.” FRIENDLY SOCIETY PATIENTS, j Discussing the association's attitude; to friendly societies, Dr. Rhind said the council had decided that societies should be notified that the association, on the termination of the present contracts between the lodge surgeon and the lodge, was prepared to operate a system on the lines of the Auckland . Transport Club No. 2 Scheme. Under that scheme the lodge member paid a subscription to his lodge, and was then entitled to go to any doctor. The doctor forwarded his account to the lodge, which paid that fee in full, and that receipted account could then be used by the lodge |o reclaim from the Government the statutory fee. “This will mean,” added Dr. Rhind, “that the old system of panel lists and capitation payment will automatically terminate.” The president of the Auckland division of the association, Dr. L. G. Drury, said on Thursday that the council had generally agreed that, by its latest amendments to the Social Security Act, the Government had restored the old relationship between patieift and doctor. The council also felt, he said, that with one exception the Government had returned to the doctor his inherent rights as an individual in a democratic State. ACCESS TO COURTS DENIED. The one right still denied the profession was that of access to the Courts, Dr Drury added. The council had unanimously decided that till this was restored doctors could not agree to help in the full and efficient administration of the general practi-' tioners section of the Social Security Act. Neither could the council agree to the appointment of any members of the profession to various medical boards which were to be set up to administer the Act. “Nevertheless,” said Dr. Drury, “the profession is prepared to do all that can be reasonably expected of it to help patients to reclaim from the Government the 7s 6d or 12s 6d mentioned in the Act, and regulations, as the amount recoverable from the Social Security Fund .for day and night attention. “This means that, apart from the right of the patient to recover such prescribed sums from the Government, medical practice will continue as previously, and the old-time relationship between the patient and doctor will in no way be disturbed.”